The View From the Phlipside - Oscar Movies, the Dark Side of George and Tweet Reviews

(Starting this week I am combining my three scripts into a single blog post.  The task of creating multiple posts to be published on different days and then trying to remember to link them on my Facebook page is just more than I want to deal with any more.  I've inserted breaks so you can scan quickly for each topic) 

 "The View From the Phlipside" is a media commentary program airing on WRFA-LP, Jamestown NY.  It can be heard Tuesday through Friday just after 8 AM and 5 PM.  The following are scripts which may not exactly match the aired version of the program.  Mostly because the host may suddenly choose to add or subtract words at a moments notice.  WRFA-LP is not responsible for any such silliness or the opinions expressed.  You can listen to a live stream of WRFA or find a podcast of this program at wrfalp.com

Oscar Movies

Sadly over the last couple years I have not been able to see as many of the Oscar nominated movies as I’d like.  In fact prior to last week I hadn’t seen ANY of this years nominees.  Then in the span of about 6 days I saw two of them.  I was struck by them both, their similarities and their very profound differences.

The two that I saw were Terrence Malick’s “Tree of Life” and the black and white mostly silent film “The Artist”.  There was no plan to seeing these two virtually back to back but it created an interesting comparison.

Both movies are homages to the art of movie making.  And both are brilliantly executed.  At that point however the two movies take off in radically different directions.

The Tree of Life is obscure, symbol filled, visually stunning and did I mention obscure?  This is more of contemplation of opposing forces in life than a traditional movie.  The movie that keeps springing to mind for me as a comparison is Kubrick’s “2001 - A Space Odyssey”.  Except that 2001 actually has a story that you can mostly follow.  After 2 plus hours of watching the movie you’ll have an experience at the movies you’ll never forget.  And quite possibly never understand.

On the other hand “The Artist” pays tribute to the early days of the movies, the days before sound when actors had completely different challenges in bringing their stories to the big screen.  It is the story of a silent movie star faced with the arrival of talkies and his star being eclipsed by an actor that he had discovered and launched.  Plenty of people will hear “black and white” and “silent” and decide not to see the movie.  That would be a shame.  The cast is exceptional and they bring the story very much alive on the screen.  There are in fact two very short sections with audio other than the traditional music score.  If you love the movies especially the early days of the industry you should make this a must see.  If you know nothing about those days you should see it to better understand and love the movies of today.  Some folks are amazed this one got a nod for Best Movie but it’s nice to see a movie that takes a risk to tell the story.

Will either one claim the Oscar?  Hard to say.  Tree of Life probably has the better chance because it can be seen as intellectual rather than popular choice.  But Oscar ends up in some peculiar hands some years so we’ll have to wait and see.  Still time for me to see a few more nominees too.

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The Dark Side of George Lucas 
Well the day long expected has arrived and now all good people must make their decision and choose their sides.  Will you remain on the side of good, virtue and righteousness or will you descend to the Dark Side?  There can be no middle ground when it comes to the latest money grab by George Lucas in the Star Wars franchise.  Where do you stand on the new 3-D version of Episode 1?

Not surprisingly this is a hot button topic among the faithful of the Jedi cult.  But it’s not simply the question of 3-D or even the question of whether or not George Lucas has completely slipped a gear with a never ending refurbishment of his signature series.  It never is with the Star Wars faithful.

Let’s begin with the return of the argument around Jar Jar Binks.  Episode 1 returns the almost universally despised alien character.  Jar Jar is accused of being a racist stereotype, profoundly annoying and just unforgivably stupid.  Then you add in the controversy of whether Han Solo shot first in the bar scene where he kills the character Greedo.  Yes, I know that’s in a completely different movie but you need to understand that any time a new version is released ALL the theological arguments immediately are revived.  Lucas maintains that Han didn’t shoot first.  Which is just patently ridiculous.  And I can’t believe we are still having this conversation.  But that’s George’s fault as well.

For me the choice is clear.  I will not be seeing the newest version of these movies.  The second trilogy is decidedly the weaker anyway so it’s a somewhat simpler decision.  I’ll even grant the Episode 1 contains scenes that might be elevated by 3-D (the racing scenes spring instantly to mind).  The problem is that if we keep showing up and shelling out our Galactic Credits to watch his latest demented meddlings he’ll just keep on doing it.  And we must do everything we can to make him stop.



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Tweet Reviews

 Caught this story on NPR the other day and the more I thought about the more I struggled with it.  Spin Magazine, one of the premier music magazines of the day, has announced that they intend to review around 15 hundred new music releases in 2012 in the form of a Tweet.  This apparently will include traditional album releases, EPs and even Hip Hop mix tapes.  The idea is that the old music review has outlived its usefulness and needs to be upgraded.  Given some of the truly awful offerings I’ve read over the last 4 decades I probably can’t argue that.  Music reviews can be arbitrary and didactic.  Maybe that comes from too many years in radio but I’ve had my fill of poly-syllabic polemics extolling the extended artistic values of some band who made noises that one person in a thousand might want to listen to for more than a minute.  I always preferred reviews that were more descriptive than those that tried to pass judgement on the artistic merits.

But can we really get any kind of value from a review that is constrained to just 140 characters?  Remember it’s 140 CHARACTERS not words.  So spaces between words count right along with letters.  To be honest Spin editor Christopher Weingarten sounded awfully smug as he described doing about 240 extended reviews this year compared to 6 times that many Tweet reviews.  Pretty clearly he has decided that this is what’s cool whether it’s useful or not.  Of course Weingarten apparently also happily proclaims himself a troll.  A troll is generally regarded as the lowest form of online virtual life.

It all smacks of hipster posing to me.  I will be the first to acknowledge that a huge percentage of musical releases each year are trash.  Yet out of that musical mosh pit emerges some great bands each year as they grow in their art.  My question is will they get the hearing they may need to succeed if we are reduced review as blurb.  In the end most of us make our minds up on music based on what we hear rather than what we read.  But once upon a time a very long time ago music criticism was an art form and some of its practitioners were musically knowledgeable AND wonderful writers.  The folks at Spin claim that this new review format will make them the go to source for music information.  I think it’s far more likely that by offering less information they might just write themselves completely out of this story.

Book Review - Gods and Fathers

Got a chance to read another great book from the folks at The Story Plant.  My travels have kept me from following up with a review.  So getting caught up now.

Gods and Fathers - James Lepore  A District Attorney is faced with a chillinig challenge - proving that his estranged son didn't kill the boy's girlfriend.  The path he will follow will require him to put his entire life on the line and take him places that he can't even imagine.

Lepore is a solid writer and shows his chops in this story.  The plot is carefully crafted and will take you deep into the psyches of the characters.  The story will surprise you, puzzle you, challenge you and simply refuse to let you go.  This isn't just another easy thriller.  Main character Matt DeMarco must deal with his divorce, his ex-wife's re-marriage, his non-existent relationship with his son, his own internal defeat and the fact that two good friends are the police officers investigating the allegations against his son.  Along the way Lepore gives us a very human hero fighting himself and powers that he didn't believe really existed.  The answers he finds aren't easy and that's what makes this such a compelling story.

It just hit the shelf last week.  Well worth grabbing a copy.

Rating - **** Recommended Read.

The Movie List - January

The Man Who Knew Too Much - (1956) - I have a short list of actors I will watch in anything.  James Stewart is on that list (other names Henry Fonda, Denzel Washington.  There might be a couple more but none spring instantly to mind).  Add in Alfred Hitchcock directing and I just can't stay away.  And the movie lives up to expectations.  Actually it goes beyond expectations because Doris Day is quite good here.  I forget sometimes that she could be an excellent actress.  Her bout of hysteria when told her character's son was kidnapped was uncomfortable in its sincerity.   Stewart and Day play tourists who get caught up along the edges of political assasination.  It has all the hallmarks of one of Hitchcock's masterpieces.  Tension that is burst by the drop in bit of whimsey followed by the tension rising again.  I'm always torn watching his movies between being drawn into the story and watching his craftsmanship.
A movie worth seeing.

Hereafter - (2010) Matt Damon stars as a man who can talk with the spirits of the dead.  But he's come to the realization that it's not a gift but a curse.  His life will intersect with a French reporter (Cécile De France) and a young English boy (Frankie/George McLaren) and all of their lives will be changed forever.  I was doing fine right up to the end.  I really enjoyed the movie till the final scene.  Which was stupid.  Just pointless and a let down and...well, stupid.  It was really a dsiappointment at the end of an otherwise Ok movie.

Cinema Paradiso - (1988) A Italian film (with sub-titles) about one man's love for the movies and the small town where he grew up.  The movie has a wonderful lush feel to it.  The characters are wonderful as well.  If there's a problem it's long enough to be two movies.  It clocks in at just shy of 3 hours.  It's worth the time but good Lord.  I really enjoyed this movie.  So if you have a long afternoon free it's definitely worth watching.


Sherlock Holmes - A Game of Shadows - (2011) Robert Downey Jr and Jude Law are back as Holmes and Watson.  Did you like the first one?  You'll probably like this.  Are you a Holmes purist?  You'll probably hate this as well.  So here's my thoughts.  I love the original stories and these aren't those.  But they are a helluva lot of fun.  I wish they didn't spend quite so much time having Holmes (referred to as "Sherly" by his brothe Mycroft) punch his way out of trouble.  It gets annoying and seems to be on the upswing from movie #1 to #2 which is sad.  But Downey and Law have so much fun with these roles I have to admit that I enjoy the movies.  So think of them as an alternate universe kind of steam punk interpretation of the stories and enjoy.  Good fun.

Casino Royale -(1967)  This is late '60s parody version of the James Bond book.  Apparently it was something of a disaster from the beginning.  It went over budget.  Two of the stars, Peter Sellers and Orson Welles, loathed each other and Sellers refused to be on set at the same time as Welles.
Incoherent is probably a very good description of this movie.  Given that there are something like a dozen people given credit (public or otherwise) for the screenplay and close to a half dozen for directing that may not be surprising.  The cast is a spot the stars spectacular but the movie is disappointing overall.  Too often it falls into the worst habit of parodies when they are self conciously trying to be clever.  Several pointless dance segments and what is essentially the single joke of the script drag it down quite badly.  David Niven stars as the "original" James Bond 007.  He's cool, intellectual and chaste.  He has no use for those who have come after him who bear his name and number. It's all quite silly and pointless.  Fortunately I've only wasted a cold and snowy afternoon on this one. The only thing worse is the 1950's TV version that's included on the disc. Ideally I'd give it a 2.5 star rating.

The Graduate (1967)  Here's a classic movie that pretty much everyone figures they know.  I know I've seen it before but was surprised by what I had forgotten.  Sure there's the classic lines  ("You're trying to seduce me Mrs. Robinson" and "Plastics"), and the characters and the wedding scene at the end of the movie.  What I'd forgotten was what a manipulative and vindictive woman Mrs. Robinson is.  I'd forgotten just how indecisive and feckless Ben Braddock is.  The movie is a wonderful look at the shallow world of upper middle class America in the '60s.  A classic movie and worth the look.

The Books List

I've mentioned before that I'm not a big fan of Christian fiction.  Too much is just not up to contemporary standards.  And I've noticed that more of them seem to be written for church book groups rather than just written the way other novels are.  Otherwise how do you explain that they all seem to come with discussion questions at the end?  May be unfair but it makes me take them less seriously.  Having said that I'verecently read two.  One reinforced my opinion and the other was the exception that proved the rule.

The Book of Days - James L. Rubart - The concept sounded intriguing.  The search for a book actually written by God (not inspired by or even placed into the minds of men.  An actual book written by God's own hand) which shows all the days of every person's life - past, present and future.  A young man is told about it by his father and wife just before each of them die.  And it may save him from losing his mind.  Interesting concept even if I have certain theological concerns.  Hey, I'm broadminded.  The problems are many.  The writing feels like that of a talented high school student.  The characters are cardboard cutouts and the really interesting issues raised by the story never really get explored.  Important story points never get explained.  I'll admit I read the book through to the end because I kept hoping that the story would resolve in an interesting fashion.  It didn't.
Rating - ** (Not Impressed)

The Prayers of Agnes Sparrow - Joyce Magnin - This is a bit of Jan Karon's Mitford and Garrison Keillor's Lake Woebegone.  It's the story of a morbidly obese woman, Agnes Sparrow, who retreats to her home and prays for anyone and everyone.  When her prayers begin to make a difference in people's lives Agne's life suddenly gets complicated.  Filled with quirky but real characters Magnin shows a wonderful deft touch with dialogue and characterization.  There's faith woven through the whole thing but it's not intended to brow beat you.  The first book in a series about the folks in the little town of Bright's Pond PA.  This book was simply a delight to read.  I enjoyed this a lot more than I expected and have recommended it to friends already.
Rating - **** (Recommended Read)

In other reading -

Napoleon's Pyramids - William Dietrich - Here's a really fine piece of historical fiction from a former news reporter who has move successfully into both fiction and non-fiction.  Part of a series about his recurring character Ethan Gage.  Gage is an American caught up in the intrigues of Napolean Bonaparte's invasion of Egypt.  Is he one of Bonaparte's savants, an English spy or just a young man in over his head?  Dietrich does a wonderful job of bringing together the exploration/invasion of Egypt where Napolean did indeed bring along over a hundred wise men to help him understand this ancient civilization.  Along the way Gage gets involved in some high intrigue and repeated physcial danger.  All while not really understanding why he's there or what anyone wants from him.  This is the kind of book that kept me up at night reading long past my bed time.
Rating - **** (Recommended Read)

The Limit - Michael Cannell - This is the story of the events leading up to the 1961 Formula 1 racing championship, the first ever won by an American.  The central characters are Enzo Ferrari, founder, visionary and undisputed boss of the auto maker that bears his name, Baron Wolfgang von Trips, only son of a minor German noble family with the desire to live fast and drive fast and Phil Hill, California boy who loved cars and racing and became the first great American international driver.  By the time the end of the '61 racing season ended they would see many of their friends and drivers die in pursuit of the ultimate racing title.  It's a well told story of the greatest racing series in the world.
Rating - **** (Recommended Read)

Relentless -  Robin Parrish -  Sigh.  I'm torn on this book.  For the vast majority of this book I REALLY liked it.  Liked the writing, liked the concept, liked the characters, liked the plot.  It's the story of a man who suddenly in the middle of his morning discovers himself in another man's body and watches himself walking away down the street.  Suddenly he has a new identity and some frightening new skills. It brings with it the aspects of science fiction and techno thriller that is guaranteed to lure me in.  And it did.  But two things take away from the book for me.  There is a strange 5-10 page writing blip about 125 pages in where the quality of writing plummets.  It recovers and the rest of the book is fine but those few pages just glare.  Then about two thirds of the way into the book the plot swerves into a fantasy/supernatural vein that I don't think was properly set up.  So at the end of book I felt let down by the author.  He led one way then changed directions without a good reason or explanation.  The book is the first in a trilogy but you don't even get the whole set up in this first book.So that kicks this down one rating.  The author also has this bizarre habit of suddenly jumping from scene to scene in a chapter without any indication.  Really annoying.
Rating - *** (Good Read)

The Inside Ring - Mike Lawson - An attempt on the life of the President of the United States narrowly misses, killing instead an old friend of the Chief Executive.  When a note surfaces that claims that the President's security team has been compromised the Speaker of the House of Representatives sends his trouble shooter Joe DeMarco to figure out what the the truth is.  This is Lawson's first novel and he shows a fabulous grip on what makes a thriller.  The book can be shocking at times with some gritty realism.  Lawson keeps a solid grip on it and drives the story home. I was deeply impressed by the book.  Well with one minor exception.  There's a little plot twist at the very end that strikes me as artificial and silly.  But it's such a small thing, even in the context of the story, that I can't deduct too many points from the book.
Ratting - **** Recommended Read

Amos Walker - The Complete Story Collection - Loren D Estleman - I'd never heard of the author or his signature private detective character Amos Walker.  By the end of the book it was clear I'd comitted a major oversight.  Walker comes from the tradition of the hard boiled detective.  He's terse and gritty and fascinating to follow.  These are short stories and well worth the read.  If you love detectives and want some quick involving reading then you want to grab this collection right now.
Rating - **** Recommended Read

Clues to Christie - The Definitive Guide to Miss Marple, Hercule Poirot, Tommy & Tuppence and All of Agatha Christie's Mysteries - This is a short introduction (77 pages) to all of the First Lady of Mystery's works.  It also includes three lesser known stories of three of her best known characters.  It was a very interesting read that filled in some details that I never knew about Christie.  She wrote more widely than I'd ever realized.  Christie fans should read this.  Mystery fans should read this as well.
Rating - ****


Chili con Corpses - J.B. Stanley - This is a fun little mystery that centers on a group of friends who gather to share food and friendship.  Along the way they solve a mystery or two.  In this one they are trying to solve a few damaged love lives and learn to cook classic Mexican foods as well.  The author gets your mouth watering for the dishes described and offers recipes for them as well.  Several of the mysteries I've read recently have been heavy, serious stories.  Stanley creates a much lighter and light hearted story.  It was a fun read.
Rating - ***

View From the Phlipside Radio - Shark Week

My name is Jay Phillippi and I've spent my life in and around the media.  TV, radio, the movies and more.  I love them, and I hate them and I always have an opinion.  Call this the View from the Phlipside.

I’m gonna fess up right up front.  I don’t get the whole Shark Week thing, I’ve never gotten the whole Shark Week thing and I’m not sure I’m ever going to get the whole Shark Week thing.  In case you don’t know what I’m talking about Shark Week is a week long series of specials on Discovery Channel about, you guessed it, sharks.  The underlying rationale is that the specials help the regular person have more respect for sharks.  Sharks.  Big teeth, think of me as lunch.  What more do I need to know?

Now that attitude kind of leaves me out of the “cool kids” group, again, because Shark Week has become a blockbuster TV event.  Last year’s audience set a record with over 30 million unique viewers.  On the air since 1987 it’s now the longest running cable TV event of all time.  And it’s seen in 72 countries.

Color me - puzzled.

But the folks who bring the world Shark Week are not puzzled in any way shape or form.  They know a winner when they see it and in true TV fashion they are leaping on the bandwagon.  Even if it’s their own bandwagon.  Discovery Channel’s sister network Animal Planet has announced that this spring they will be offering... MONSTER WEEK!  And even better than that it will actually run for more than a week!

This show will stay true to the basic concepts of Shark Week.  The monsters are water born and most of them would view their fans as tasty morsels.  Jeremy Wade will host the week.  He should feel right at home since his regular gig on Animal Planet is a show called River Monsters.

I really do begin to wonder about the TV viewing public after a while.  I mean look at what some of our favorite TV viewing is.  There’s all the CSI and police procedurals that feature our fellow man dieing in as many hideous ways as possible.  On top of that we have things like Criminal Minds and Dexter which features human beings at their most twisted and depraved.  Now we want more, more, more of scary beasts that want to eat us.  

Now THAT’S entertainment.

But a woman’s nipple exposed for less than a second during the Super Bowl is the end of the world as we know it.

Nope I just don’t get it at all.

Call that the View From the Phlipside.

View From the Phlipside Radio - Cars and Media

My name is Jay Phillippi and I've spent my life in and around the media.  TV, radio, the movies and more.  I love them, and I hate them and I always have an opinion.  Call this the View from the Phlipside.

By now I’m guessing you’ve caught on to the fact that I am seriously into the media.  Maybe even beyond the point that a grown man of advancing years should acknowledge but there it is.  What you may not know is that I am also something of a car guy.  I come by that honestly because my dad was a big time car guy.  His first job out of college was in the design department at Ford, on their honeymoon he took my mother to the Detroit Auto Show and before I was allowed to drive his cars I had to be able to explain how an internal combustion engine worked, identify the major systems of a car and be able to change a tire and the oil.  I grew up in a serious car household.

So imagine my unfettered joy when two of my great passions come together in a single story.  In the last week or two the folks at Ford and the the folks at National Public Radio have announced a partnership that will put a special app in new Fords that will give you direct access to programming from NPR.  That story in and of itself is no big deal even if you’re an NPR fan as I am.  

What got me about the story is the ever increasing amount of media that is now available in cars.  And it begins to worry me.  The worst idea, putting a video screen in the middle of the steering wheel, seems to have died off.  Which is wonderful from my point of view.  Even so you’re seeing more and more screens in cars.  The Tesla electric sports car boasts a 17 inch screen that basically takes over all the functions of the dashboard.  At the other end of the cost scale the brand new Dodge Dart has a screen for dashboard functions plus a second one for things like climate control and sound system.

But what really worries me is the advent of voice control for media in cars.  All of this MIGHT be a distraction if you let it but what happens when people from anywhere in the car can start affecting distraction inspiring stuff inside the car?  In my lifetime car radios were options.  Now we have music, phone, video, web access, and most of them can be fired up by a three year old in the back seat.

Somewhere along the line we need to remember that we are in a vehicle that weighs around a ton or more at speeds that can be well in excess of a mile a minute.  We drive them in situations that require great concentration.

Forgetting that, even for a second, can get you in a lot of trouble.  Something else my father taught me.


Call that the View From the Phlipside

View From the Phlipside Radio - Sofia Vergara

My name is Jay Phillippi and I've spent my life in and around the media.  TV, radio, the movies and more.  I love them, and I hate them and I always have an opinion.  Call this the View from the Phlipside.

I’ve always been amused by the disinclination of many top American actors to do commercials in the United States market.  The idea has always been that you don’t want to get “over-exposed” because then the audience might get tired of you.  As a general rule many of these same stars have absolutely no problem what so ever about doing commercials overseas.  The money is generally great, advertising shoots are short and then you’re back home.  I’ve never really bought that argument.  It seems more likely that in the quick turn around world of advertising the stars don’t to play star the way some of them would like.

There used to be an argument against doing commercials that involved the dread concept of “selling out”.  Now this is more of a ‘60’s generation thing because stars prior to that did advertising all the time.  Even as a child of the ‘60’s myself (meaning that I was in fact a CHILD in the ‘60’s) I’ve found this one to be pretentious nonsense as well.  Selling out is advertising a product or service you actively don’t believe in just for the money.  For most actors it’s mostly advertising products they don’t care one way or the other about.  It’s a job, and I have no problem with that.

But I have to admit I really respect what actress Sofia Vergara is doing.  Vergara is the drop dead gorgeous Columbian actress who currently stars in ABC’s “Modern Family”.  She’s moved her career from hosting shows on Univision to multiple Golden Globe, Screen Actors Guild and Emmy nominations.  She’s reached the point where she probably doesn’t NEED to be doing commercials any more.

And she’s doing a new Pepsi ad anyway.  In fact flying in the face of the old school thinking she’s doing the Pepsi ad in part as recognition of the place Pepsi has had in her career.  Early in her career she did a spot for Pepsi that Vergara gives a great deal of credit for launching her.  So she’s remembering who helped get her here and is staying loyal to them.

That’s selling out in the best possible way, selling out to loyalty.  I don’t think we should ever get tired of seeing that.

Call that the View From the Phlipside.

View From the Phlipside Radio - The Dumbest Story of 2011 (and 2012)!

My name is Jay Phillippi and I've spent my life in and around the media.  TV, radio, the movies and more.  I love them, and I hate them and I always have an opinion.  Call this the View from the Phlipside.

End of the year and I like to take a look back at the topics that we’ve talked about here.  This year I thought I’d do a best, worst and dumbest ideas of the year.  These are topics that bubbled to the surface this year that will carry forward into 2012.  This time let’s take a look at my dumbest topic nominee.

This one could have gone for the worst idea but I think it falls just short.  It’s just a dumb idea that some folks just won’t let go on.  It’s 3-D.  Every couple decades we have another resurgence of the attempt to create a three dimensional visual image for the big screen.  This time it’s also lapped over onto the small screen.  I need to acknowledge that I came to this latest attempt at 3-D with a negative attitude.  I’ve seen too many attempts in the past that never tried to get beyond the gimmick aspect of it.  What one friend of mine has described as the “jumpy outty parts”.  Beyond that you still have to deal with those dumb glasses which are an even bigger problem for those of us who wear presription glasses.

When Avatar came out in 3-D I thought we’d finally gotten over the hump.  Avatar gave us a reason for 3-D, it made the story better.  It was visually stunning.  The problem is that NONE of the movies I’ve seen since in 3-D meet the standard.  Even without jumpy-outty parts the 3-D adds nothing.  It’s still just a gimmick.

And then we talk about TV.  What a complete and utter non-starter of an idea.  Television is too deeply set in the American way of life.  So making it more complicated is just a bad idea.  Add in the dumb glasses some of which apparently need batteries and I just end up shaking my head.  When they start talking about putting major sporting events in 3-D then I’m totally confused.  So I’m either supposed to have enough TV glasses for everyone at my Super Bowl party or do I only invite folks who own them?  Just dumb.  And headed for the dustbin is my bet.

Here’s to the New Year.  Which will be just fine in 2D thank you.

Call that the View From the Phlipside

View From the Phlipside Radio - The Worst Story of 2011 (and 2012)!

My name is Jay Phillippi and I've spent my life in and around the media.  TV, radio, the movies and more.  I love them, and I hate them and I always have an opinion.  Call this the View from the Phlipside.

End of the year and I like to take a look back at the topics that we’ve talked about here.  This year I thought I’d do a best, worst and dumbest ideas of the year.  These are topics that bubbled to the surface this year that will carry forward into 2012.  This time let’s take a look at my worst topic nominee.

I have to admit that I bounced back and forth between my candidates for worst topic and dumbest topic.  I could argue for either one in either category.  In the end I chose the one that I think is the more serious issue to be name worst topic.  And it’s one that for many of us only bubbled up in the last couple months.  That’s the Stop Online Piracy Act or SOPA, a piece of legislation that will be considered by our Congress in January of this coming year.

In my initial piece of SOPA I noted that I have no particular problem with the underlying concept.  Online piracy is a real problem.  Creators of content whether it’s music or writing or video or any of the other items that are being pirated have a right to control what they control.  And to choose to try and make a profit from it if they want.  The idea that the consumer should be able to get whatever they want for free is childish and a great way to insure that fewer creators will spend the time to make the really good stuff.

But even a casual reading of the SOPA legislation shows that it’s just badly constructed.  For example if I put a link to some copywritten content.  Not the actual content, just a link.  Under SOPA I can be charged with a felony.  A felony.  I haven’t taken anything or given it away.  It could just be a link to a photograph or video that I didn’t even realize was being illegally copied.  Doesn’t matter.  The Phlipside is looking at being shut down online and charged with a felony.

Too many of the old media want Congress to hand them a legal hammer to allow them censorship rights far beyond what they need to protect their legitimate rights.  And that’s not just a bad idea.  I think it’s the worst idea of 2011 that’s headed into 2012.

Here’s to the New Year.  Let’s do it without SOPA.

Call that the View From the Phlipside

View From the Phlipside Radio - The Top Story of 2011 (and 2012)!

My name is Jay Phillippi and I've spent my life in and around the media.  TV, radio, the movies and more.  I love them, and I hate them and I always have an opinion.  Call this the View from the Phlipside.

End of the year and I like to take a look back at the topics that we’ve talked about here.  This year I thought I’d do a best, worst and dumbest ideas of the year.  These are topics that bubbled to the surface this year that will carry forward into 2012.  This time let’s take a look at my best topic nominee.

Of all the topics I looked at this year the one that I think will have the biggest impact in 2012 will be mobile computing.  This is something that got a lot of discussion throughout the media world this past year.  Smartphones have been coming on for several years but the number of people who were doing significant percentages of their online computing through devices like them really began to sky rocket this year.  But I think that smartphone mobile computing is only the surface of the changes that are coming our way.

The iPad made a huge impact when it was introduced just two years ago.  The long sought tablet computer finally had a successful well designed version out there.  But I think the iPad won’t remain the core of this market or the mobile computing movement.  And the reason is simple.  The iPad is simply too much.  Too much when it comes to capability and too much in the price tag.  There has been a huge movement towards simpler and significantly less expensive tablet computers.  I know that even my own Nook Color which isn’t really a tablet at all meets my primary needs for quick internet contact.  When you look at devices like the Kindle Fire, the Nook Tablet which offer all the primary functions most people need at well under $300 then even the lower cost iPad competitor tablet computers become less imperative for purchase.  And if the movement toward sub $100 tablet computers takes off then iPad and the other high end tablets become much more in the line of speciality items.

Small computers that are easier to carry, that give us the versatility of smartphone apps and all at prices that the vast majority of the market can easily afford will be a game changer.  Just the way the personal computer was 20-30 years ago.  And that would be a very good idea for 2012.

Here’s to the New Year.

Call that the View From the Phlipside